Page 9 of Breaking Danger (Ghost Ops #3)

Things had been very wrong at Arka Pharmaceuticals, where she worked.

Much as she’d tried to ignore it, concentrate on her work, which was both fascinating and incredibly challenging, warning bells had been clanging for some time before she allowed herself to notice anything.

Orders from administration made no sense.

The protocol timelines were increased—doubled, at times trebled.

They’d be taken off one line of testing and put on an entirely new one and pressed for results.

That’s not the way science worked. Science worked by reason and slow deliberation, neither of which were present in Arka’s leadership.

She and Elle had been deeply worried even before people started disappearing. It had been like doing science in a whirlwind. And then the disappearances started.

Sophie was used to seeing a pale face in the mirror, fine lines of worry starting to etch a permanent path.

She had started losing weight, when she had no weight to lose.

Hollows were appearing under her cheekbones because she found it almost impossible to eat, given that her stomach was usually in knots.

She’d stopped sleeping and the purple bruises under her eyes were starting to look permanent.

Now she was looking at a woman with wild bedhead spiraling around her pink, flushed face. It looked like she’d put three or four pounds back on, all of them from eating fabulous food.

Here it was, the end of the world, and all it took was the best sex of her life to make her feel better. Shaking her head at her own folly, she stepped under the shower for a quick wash. Not much in the world worked, but her building still had hot water.

Who knew how long that would last?

It might be her last one in this lifetime so though she was fast, she was thorough.

The hot water revived her, except when she swiped between her legs with the washcloth.

Everything down there was supersensitized, slightly swollen.

It was as if the tissues themselves bore a cellular memory of Jon’s presence inside her body.

Her legs trembled when she washed herself and she had to stand for a full minute, arms braced against the tile wall, under the hot torrent until the trembling passed.

Sophie kept some yoga outfits in the bathroom so when she walked back out, in a thin tee shirt and yoga pants, she felt more in control of herself than when she’d walked in.

Jon was exactly where she’d left him, by the window, looking down at the destruction below with a drawn face.

“Jon?” she asked softly, putting a hand on a massive shoulder.

Oh God. Touching him made all her senses flare. It was the lightest touch, her palm lightly pressed against his shoulder blade. Under her palm was warm hard muscle and a sense of vibrancy, of unusual power and strength, like the engine of a racing car temporarily idling.

“Would you like to shower at some point?”

He pulled in a sharp breath and turned, ice blue gaze so very sharp and intense. “Do I dare? What if we run out of water?”

Sophie didn’t have many answers to what was going on but she did have an answer to that.

“The building has a huge reservoir on top and I don’t think too many people are left—” her voice wobbled as she thought of all her neighbors.

“Are left alive. The building has a mini heliostat so the electricity will keep pumping the water until it’s finished.

I have a second bathroom with a hip bath and that is filled with water.

I have filled every large pot and pan and bucket with water.

The water will last at least a week. The water will outlast?—”

Us . She stopped herself before the truth could come tumbling out. The water she’d stored would outlast humanity, at this rate.

She tilted her head, studying him. He was tall, visibly very strong. There was a stunner in a holster on the floor next to his Superman suit, some kind of gun in a shoulder holster. But still?—

“How did you make it here?” she asked.

Someone screamed. A woman. Not close, maybe from a building across the street. It wasn’t a scream of fear but of rage. Sophie waved a hand at the window, encompassing the fallen world outside. “How can anyone survive out there?”

It wasn’t an idle question. He was here to rescue her and get the case with the live virus and the vaccine, but unless he had a tank right outside her front door, she had no idea how they could manage to get five feet without dying or, worse, without being turned.

Something of her terror must have been showing. He lifted a big hand, cupped the side of her face. His deep voice was soft, almost tender. “I’ll keep you safe.”

She nodded, though of course that was an insane comment. Nobody could keep anybody safe. Not in this new, broken world. “How did you make it?” she repeated. She shivered.

Jon looked down at her. “I have a helo.”

She blinked. For a second she thought he said— I have a halo . He was an angel? What—and then she understood. A helicopter . He had a helicopter.

A little shiver of hope went through her, the first in three days. A helicopter! Helicopters could land almost anywhere. And they took off, could just fly right over the chaos and violence.

“Here?” she asked eagerly, looking up toward the roof. Could it be that easy? Somehow make it up the stairs and away? “On top of my building?”

Jon sighed, that big chest expanding. It was a sigh almost of sorrow. “No, sorry. We checked your rooftop and though my helo doesn’t need much of a helipad there was some equipment taking up most of the roof. Couldn’t land safely.”

She bit her lips. “Oh no. They are making repairs, the whole condo voted on it. The workers must have just abandoned their equipment.” And she’d voted for the repairs, too. “So where did you land? Not on the street, I hope.”

“Nope. I landed on top of the Ghirardelli building. Biggest high clear space around. And I looked carefully as I flew down. The…infected aren’t on rooftops.

I don’t know whether it’s because they don’t like stairs or heights or what.

But the only people on rooftops I saw coming here were…

human.” His jaws clenched so hard the skin at his temples moved.

“That must have been hard,” Sophie said softly. “To see people alive. In need. And not be able to help.”

“Yeah.” He looked away sharply.

“But…on top of the Ghirardelli Building.” Sophie tried to keep dismay out of her voice.

She loved strolling over to the Ghirardelli Building on weekends, checking the shops.

Sometimes she and Elle would indulge in a hamburger at Sara’s Diner overlooking the Bay.

It made for a nice walk. Running there, dodging monsters, lugging that heavy case…

“If we make it, it would be a miracle. And the case is heavy.”

“I’ll take care of the case.” Jon reached out with his thumb to smooth the crease between her eyebrows. “I’m not going to insult you and say it’s going to be easy, but I have a stunner and a pistol and some grenades. And?—”

“And we’ll douse ourselves with perfume. I have plenty.”

His head jerked back. “What?”

“I’ve been observing them.” Her eyes slid to the window where she’d watched for hours, broken-hearted at the violence and bloodshed on her street.

“I’m a scientist. That’s what I do. Observe.

I think that their olfactory sense has strengthened.

I’ve often watched as an infected stops and sniffs the air, like a dog would.

Hunting for a particular scent and I think that’s what’s happening.

” Her throat tightened. She had to swallow to get rid of the lump that had suddenly appeared. “I think they are hunting…humans.”

He made a low noise deep in his chest. “Yeah. So—what? Dousing ourselves with perfume would help?” He turned his head, looked at her door. “That’s all the scented candles at your door.”

She nodded. “Yes. It can’t hurt. You can have my Chanel N° 5. It’s real perfume and it costs the earth.” She smiled a little at the thought of him doused in her Chanel. He didn’t look like the Chanel type.

“What else? What else have you observed, Sophie? Anything at all. Any information is better than none, it ups our chances of survival.”

She didn’t need her notes though she’d take them with her in her laptop.

Everything she knew was seared into her mind.

“I think their eyesight is diminished. Perhaps the virus affects the optic nerve, perhaps their brains are no longer equipped to process all the data that comes in through the eyes. Smell is the oldest and most primitive of the senses and that is why it is strengthened. I think the virus amplifies the limbic system, hence the savagery, the inability to reason. I haven’t seen an infected be able to open doors with handles and they have great difficulty navigating stairs.

Eyesight is diminished, as I said. At twilight they start bumping into things.

I think they might be essentially blind in the dark.

But they’ll still attack if they touch someone. ”

“Shit,” he swore in a vicious tone. “They’re like fucking zombies.”

They were looking out the window. His words made her turn in surprise.

“Oh, no, they’re not zombies. Not at all.”

Jon frowned. “I thought it was the zombie apocalypse. Like in the books and movies and video games.”